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Hard cover, 12mo., 252, [32] pp. In publisher's blue cloth boards with gold lettering and decoration to spine. Part of the Travellers' Library Series, number 42. Originally published 1897. With publisher's catalogue at end of the volume. CONDITION: Fine. No inscription or writing to pages. Two catalogue pages unopened at bottom.**The Greek-born AUTHOR Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) had led a troubled and wandering life before settling in Japan in the late nineteenth century. But, at last, he had found his natural home. He took a Japanese name, taught at Japanese schools, and married a Japanese woman. He wrote these books to convey his deep love of his adopted homeland by sharing their customs, folklore, and cultural history with his English-speaking readership. In this book, he describes the Shinto religion and its temples and rituals, not as a tourist, but as one who has let the folklore he absorbed become part of him. In the first chapter, "A Living God", he imagines himself as a Shinto deity, being part of the lives of those who came to ask for good fortune. He then relates the legend of Hamaguchi Gohei, a village headsman who sacrificed all his worldly possessions when he saw a a terror out at sea which was about to destroy an entire village. Other chapters include: "Notes of a Trip to Kyōto", "In Ōsaka", "Buddhist Allusions in Japanese Folk-Song", "Nirvana", and "The Rebirth of Katsugorō". In these tellings, Hearn captures the balance that the ancient culture of Japan reached with nature, and with each other. (AJ)
Ref: ADV 9617
$42.00